20220718-125507-37

"Overdose deaths involving opioids have increased dramatically since the 1990s, leading to the worst drug overdose epidemic in U.S. history, but there is limited empirical evidence about the initial causes. Researchers leveraged cross-state variation in exposure to OxyContin's introduction due to a state policy that substantially limited the drug's early entry and marketing in select states. Court documents involving Purdue Pharma show that state-based triplicate prescription programs posed a major obstacle to sales of OxyContin and suggest that less marketing was targeted to states with these programs. It was found that OxyContin distribution was more than 50% lower in "triplicate states" in the years after the drug's launch. Although triplicate states had higher rates of overdose deaths prior to 1996, this relationship flipped shortly after the launch and triplicate states saw substantially slower growth in overdose deaths, continuing even 20 years after OxyContin's introduction. Results show that the introduction and marketing of OxyContin explain a substantial share of overdose deaths over the past two decades. This webinar will examine the role of the 1996 introduction and marketing of OxyContin as a potential leading cause of the opioid crisis.

Abby Alpert is an Assistant Professor of Health Care Management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her research interests are in health economics and public finance. Her recent work has focused on the economics of the pharmaceutical sector. In this area of research, she has studied causes and consequences of the Opioid Crisis, Medicaid reimbursement policies, Medicaid managed care, Medicare Part D, direct-to-consumer advertising, and drug shortages. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and has been featured in media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Vox. Prior to joining Wharton, she was an Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy at The Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California in Irvine, and she was an Associate Economist at the RAND Corporation. She received her PhD in Economics from the University of Maryland and BS in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Chicago."